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CIALIS WESTERN OPEN

July 3, 2004

Mark Hensby

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 54 hole co-leader, Mark Hensby, thank you for joining us at the Cialis Western Open. Talk about your day today, four birdies, no bogeys, and had a good day playing with Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Allenby.

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, it's always comfortable playing with two Australians. That was quite amusing last night when I checked out my tee times. It was a good day. I struggled a little bit at the end, but I didn't think that really had to do with my golf swing or golf game. It had to do with the wind a little bit. I played tough at the end, but I hung in there and played well.

Q. When Geoff Ogilvy was in here he called you Seve Hensby. He said you made some really nice up-and-downs toward the end of your round today.

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, I wish I was Seve. I'd like to have Seve's record, four majors. I had a couple of great up-and-downs at the end, but that's the great part of golf, great part of the game. It doesn't really matter how, it's how many. I played really well up to that point and hit a couple of loose ones at the end, but up-and-downs on 17 and 18 were two that probably fit into his category.

Q. Can you just take us through 18 a little bit? Looks like it was sort of an adventure.

MARK HENSBY: Not really an adventure, it's just a hard hole. You drive it down there and you hit a 3-iron into a green that's it's hard enough to hit a 7-iron into. In fact, I was going to lay up. I was standing there thinking I've got an easier chip from the front of the green because even if I land a 3-iron on the green, it's going to run off the back.

I really misjudged the wind there. I started it at the right edge of the green obviously because there was water on the left, and the wind was actually off the left and it kind of flew it a little right. I didn't really hit as bad a shot as it looked there.

But as I said, it's a hard hole right now. It's not hard for Geoff because he's hitting a 5- or 6-iron in there, I've got 3-iron.

Q. How far was that third shot?

MARK HENSBY: The third shot, it wasn't really distance, it was kind of right. I don't know how far it would have been, probably 30, 40 feet, something like that. It was a shot that you could stand there 100 times and not hit it again. I mean, I hit it perfect and almost holed it.

Q. Do you find that there are people from Cog Hill that you know and see out here, and is it like people are rooting for you almost this week to do well? Is there any of that going on this week?

MARK HENSBY: Oh, yeah, a lot of people that I saw ten, nine, eight years ago, and I seem them out there and it's amazing how everyone has changed. They're supporting me and it's great, and they supported me even when I wasn't playing well out here three years ago. They always told me to keep on going and good luck and all that sort of stuff. It's definitely great to play well in front of them.

Q. Geoff was talking about how you came through sort of a different route than most of the Australians like him and Robert and Stuart through the ranks. Taking a little longer to get to this point, do you feel like you appreciate it a little more?

MARK HENSBY: I guess it's where you grow up in Australia. It's the same as growing up in the United States, if you don't grow up in a big city. I had to work for a period of time before I could play golf, and they didn't have to do that. They got through all the institutes of sports and things like that. It's obviously -- I wouldn't say it's more gratifying coming up and playing like that, it's just the way I know. I know of no other way.

You know, I feel like I'm getting better. That's the goal. Robert and Geoff and Stuart are great guys, how they came up, too. They're great players.

Q. Tell us a little bit about where you came from in Australia and how you happened to come over here to further your golf career.

MARK HENSBY: Well, I come from a small town in Danforth, and it's like probably 33,000 people. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. There's only one golf course. There's two now but there was one when I grew up there. I started golfing when I was 12, and then by the time I was 15 I played off scratch.

Then at 17 I didn't play a lot of golf, 17, 18, I kind of gave up for three or four years and I worked two, three jobs at a time sometimes, and then I had the opportunity to come over. I always wanted to come over here, watching The Masters and so on on TV, I just wanted to come over here, and I came over in 94 and stayed with some people that I knew from Australia, and just kind of started that way. I won the Illinois Amateur that year and played in a few big amateur tournaments. I actually played with Tiger in a practice round at Pointer Woods in the Western Amateur, and I had never heard of him.

Q. You were from the middle of nowhere.

MARK HENSBY: I had no clue who he was, and I was like, man, this guy is good. He hits it a long way. I remember going back, and the guy said yeah, he's the up-and-coming so on and so forth. It was kind of a funny story because I had never heard of him. We all know what he's all about now, but that's kind of where it all started.

Q. When was that?

MARK HENSBY: I think it was 94.

Q. Danforth, is that in the middle of nowhere as Alice Springs?

MARK HENSBY: No, Alice Springs is right in the middle. It's four hours northwest of Sydney, about four and a half hours northwest of Sydney.

Q. So you had friends from Australia who lived in the Chicago area?

MARK HENSBY: What happened was some people at the golf club that I knew, knew some people over here, I didn't actually know them, and they said we'll look after him for a few months, and if he likes to play over here we'll take care of him and let him stay here off and on, play amateur tournaments. That's how it came about.

Q. Where do they live?

MARK HENSBY: Hinsdale.

Q. What are their names?

MARK HENSBY: Ray and Julie McGill.

Q. Did you live in your car here for a time?

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, after they left, because they left after six months, and I thought, I'm going to go to Q-school at the end of the year, so I think they left in like September or October maybe, and I had to go to Q-school, and then I missed the Q-school at the second stage, and I had nowhere to stay, and I was, like, I had a ticket out on December the 19th to go back to Australia. I was kind of debating what I was going to do because financially I didn't really have a lot of money, so I slept in my car down at the range for a few nights, and then it turned into a week, week and a half, and then the ranger down there at the time, he asked me what I was doing, and I said -- it was funny because one night I woke up and my toes were frozen because it was cold so I used to drive around the block with the heater on, then go back to sleep, so it was kind of a funny story.

Q. Were there nights when you were saying, what am I doing here? Maybe I should have flown home and come back the next year or something?

MARK HENSBY: No, not really. I guess when you grow up where I grew up in Australia, it wasn't that big a deal. For some people it sounds outrageous. To me it wasn't that big a deal. I've slept on the clubhouse roof back home in Australia so I didn't have to -- so I could get out early before the members. I used to throw my clubs in the bush sometimes.

To me it wasn't that big a deal, but it was definitely when I got my feet frozen, that definitely --

Q. This was in December of what year?

MARK HENSBY: 94.

Q. What did you do after that one and a half weeks of sleeping out here?

MARK HENSBY: It was more than one and a half weeks. I left and went back to Australia. Actually there were some people down the road, a girl who worked here, she let me stay there at her parents' house for probably a week or two before I left, and then that's when I went back to Australia.

Q. So how long in the car then just to get it straight?

MARK HENSBY: Honestly it's between probably two weeks and a month and a half. I can't remember.

Q. Tomorrow you'll be playing with two other guys looking for their first win, also. Does it matter to you who's chasing you, Tiger Woods obviously being one of them, and some other guys that have won quite a few tournaments?

MARK HENSBY: Of course it does. I mean, any time Tiger is four back, that's nothing. He's the best player in the world. He's the best player I'll ever see. Of course, it's not going to affect me to the extent that -- obviously if I go out there and play well and he beats me, what can I do? But I'm sure, you know, it always comes down to it. I'm the guy who they don't expect to win, and he's probably expected to win if he gets up there. In a way it does and in a way it doesn't.

Q. Are you going to act like you've never heard of him?

MARK HENSBY: No, I've heard of him now (laughter).

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your four birdies and we'll take one final question. Birdied the par 4 5th.

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, I hit a nice drive and a 6-iron to about 15 feet.

8, 2-iron and a pitching wedge and I holed about an 18-foot putt down the hill.

9 was a driver, 8-iron, pitching wedge to about six feet.

15, par 5, driver, 3-wood, chip and a putt to about ten feet.

Good up-and-down at 17, I hit it in the left bunker and I was in between clubs and I kind of hit it heavy and it came out left and short, and I hit a good chip.

Q. Just to elaborate on 17, Geoff made it sound like it was the greatest up-and-down he had ever seen, and you're acting like it was no big deal. Did you have to land it in the right square inch to do what you did, or can you go into detail on 17?

MARK HENSBY: 17 was probably harder than the one on 18 because it was off the hard pan. You know, the only good part about it was I was back into the wind, and when I hit it I knew it was good because I had to land it between the bunker and the green, but if I didn't, I still got it within 15 feet to work with. Even though I only had an area like this (indicating one foot) to land in, I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking if I've got a 15-foot putt down the hill or just past, I've still got a chance to save par. In a way I was a little lucky. I was trying to hit a shot, but if it comes off, it's great.

Q. How close did you chip it?

MARK HENSBY: Six feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Hensby, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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